Canada’s largest city and North America’s fourth-largest metropolis, Toronto received more than 27.5 million visitors annually before the pandemic, making it Canada’s most popular tourist destination, according to Destination Toronto, the city’s tourism marketing arm.
As travel recovers, Canadian tourists dominate, with traffic from the United States just beginning to return and overseas visitors still scarce, according to agency data. Summer is usually high season; this may be the last year to take advantage of Toronto’s warm weather before the city gets swamped again.
More than 5,100 restaurants have closed in the province of Ontario during the pandemic, says Restaurants Canada, a national trade organization. But the culinary scene of this omnivore city has come back to life. In May, Michelin chose Toronto as the first Canadian city to have its own guide.
“The vibrancy and diversity is still intact,” said Scott Beck, president and CEO of Destination Toronto. “Everything that makes our food scene so unique in North America is still there. The diversity in arts and culture is still there.”
And yes, cannabis shops have mushroomed during the pandemic, but “they’re a null event,” Mr. Beck said. “Cannabis is legal across the country. Toronto is not Amsterdam.
Eating and drinking
The liveliest eateries tend to open in the bohemian suburbs of Toronto. But attractive restaurants have already sprung up downtown. “The demand for weekend warriors for social dinners and entertainment is back in a real way,” said Hanif Harjee, CEO of Scale Hospitality, which operates 14 restaurants. “There’s activity in the streets again.”
Mr. Harji’s Bar Chica, open since April, hides behind an unmarked door next to an apartment building on King Street West. On a recent Thursday night, the high-ceilinged room pulsed with what felt like a pre-Covid energy. Chef Ted Corrado tweaks traditional tapas with Canadian provisions; think British Columbia shrimp ceviche or Canadian beef chimichurri with Ontario ramps (tapas range from C$9 to C$24, or about $7 to $18). In August, Mr. Harji will open Miss Likklemore’s, a Caribbean spot in King West Village. Come fall, Scale and Montreal chef Antonio Park will open AP, a fine dining spot atop Eataly’s Yorkville outpost.
Also in Yorkville, chef Rob Rossi’s Ligurian menu at Osteria Giulia attracts well-dressed locals who feast on traditional flatbreads, salumi and pasta (entrées from CAD$32 to CAD$75). Open since October, it remains the hottest table in the neighborhood. Around the corner, Adrak employs a team of chefs, each specializing in a regional Indian style of cooking; the non-traditional menu includes smoked salmon with mustard (entrées from C$29 to C$60).
Toronto offers endless options for all kinds of Asian food. A rumored new spot is Cà Phê Rang, opened south of Chinatown by French-based veterans Le Select Bistro. The deceptively simple menu offers extravagantly seasoned surprises like halloumi banh mi, shiitake escabeche spring rolls, and house-made praline and peanut dipping sauce (appetizers C$15 to C$20).
In the north end of Yorkville, Mimi Kitain heads back to the future in a neon-lit room with red velvet banquettes served by bow-tied waiters. The menu spans the provinces of southern China, from Guangdong-inspired raw yellowtail kingfish to Shanxi charred cabbage. It opened in October and remains tough fare (entrées from C$26 to C$88).
Smorgasburg, the Brooklyn-born outdoor food market, will debut its first international edition on Toronto’s waterfront Queen’s Quay on July 23; it runs for eight Saturdays, showcasing local vendors. In the western Annex district, the new Superfresh night market showcases “Asian-led and owned” food and beverage vendors in a 4,000-square-foot hall “in the style of an Asian alley,” according to organizers.
With commercial rents on the rise, condos popping up everywhere and space at a premium, nightlife has yet to catch up with food offerings. “We get a lot of restaurants, which is great. The challenge is finding a place to dance,” said Michael Nyarkoch, Community Marketing Manager at the new Ace Hotel Toronto.
Back on stage
Closed for renovations three years ago, the 127-year-old Massey Hall reopened in November with red velvet seats, magnificently restored stained glass windows, full accessibility and a crystal clear sound system. His return had a special meaning for this music-mad city. “Massey Hall was built the year after Carnegie Hall, and it’s a Torontonian’s dream for a band to play there,” said Kevin Drew, founder of Toronto’s Broken Social Scene, which played its first show at Massey Hall in April. The $146 million restoration “has done an amazing job of preserving the ghosts and the warmth,” he said. Canadian royalty from Oscar Peterson to Rush have played at the venue, whose full 2022 roster includes soul legend Mavis Staples and alt-country star Orville Peck.
Toronto’s live theater scene, one of the continent’s largest, is reviving after a pandemic shutdown. For the first time since 2019, the Toronto Fringe Festival, which ends on July 17, has brought back live performances. In the big Broadway-style houses, glamorous openings include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which opened in May; and Singin’ in the Rain (opens September 23). In February, Hamilton returned. Tickets range from about C$99 to C$260.
On independent stages, intriguing work includes suburban drama Detroit at the east end’s Coal Mine Theater (through Aug. 7); the world premiere of Erin Shields’ Shakespeare prequel Queen Goneril at Soulpepper (opens August 25); and the Kafka-inspired Cockroach at Tarragon (opens September 13). Tickets at these theaters range from C$25 to C$60.
Arts and Images
After almost two years of online shows and openings, Toronto museums are back with powerful lineups. In June, the Art Gallery of Ontario debuted the sprawling exhibition Faith and Wealth: Art in the Global Spanish Empire (until October 10), with 200 works spanning four centuries and three continents. More intimate performances by Canadian artists Ken Lum and Ed Pien explore personal stories through images and text. A few blocks north, the Royal Ontario Museum is opening the Harry Potter-themed Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature, exploring what the museum calls the “intersection of natural history and pop culture” (until January 2, 2023).
A few blocks west, the Bata Shoe Museum launched “The Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting Edge Kicks,” showcasing high-tech designs like Nike’s self-lacing MAGS and the Zaha Hadid/Rem Koolhaas collaboration (through October 2023). The incredible Gardiner Museum, one of North America’s only museums dedicated to ceramics, presents Sharif Bey: Colonial Ruptures, featuring African-inspired icons by the Syracuse artist (through Aug. 28). And the four-year-old Museum of Contemporary Art, in a converted West End auto factory, offers two knockout shows: “Dreamland,” haunting portraits by New York-based Shirin Neshat, and “Summer,” the first solo exhibition by conceptual artist Felix Gonzalez- Torres, who died in 1996 (both by July 31).
A handful of new hotels
This is proving to be a landmark year for hotel openings. Canada’s first Ace Hotel will open this summer on a quiet cul-de-sac between bustling Queen and King streets. Shim-Sutcliffe Architects of Toronto designed a curving modernist facade whose soaring concrete interior houses Alder, a Mediterranean-style restaurant from acclaimed Toronto chef Patrick Criss (prices from CAD $349 per night).
With the closing of a huge Hudson’s Bay department store in March, the intersection of Yonge and Bloor streets felt bleak. The mood should improve this month with Toronto’s first W Hotel, on the Northeast Side. Once a stark Marriott, the 254-room W transforms its brutalist concrete building with lush colors and abundant greenery. On the floor: A spacious street-level cafe, a 5,000-square-foot tapas and champagne bar, and a huge rooftop lounge apparently inspired by Yves Saint Laurent’s villa in Marrakech (rates from C$475 per night).
The 1 Hotel brand, from former Starwood chairman Barry Sternlicht, made its Toronto debut last August in the western end of the Entertainment District. Promising “sustainable luxury” — and featuring 3,000 plants — the 112-room hotel was the only Canadian contender on Condé Nast Traveler’s 2022 Hot List (rates from C$530 per night).
Queen Street West’s 19-room Drake Hotel isn’t exactly new—it opened in 1890 and was renovated in 2004—but its 32-room Modern Wing just debuted in a sleek, compact building next door. It’s the kind of property with a full-time art curator, colorful interiors by the innovative DesignAgency, and live music in the basement. The windowed restaurant offers great sidewalk views (prices from CAD 379 per night).
On the site of the former Pilkington glass factory near the Entertainment District, the Robert De Niro-backed Nobu brand will open its first mixed-use development in 2023 with a hotel, 650 residences and a Nobu restaurant. Toronto architect Stephen Teeple compared the design of his perforated black building to a tuning fork.
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